SHAFAQNA – At least one policeman was killed and five others wounded Thursday following an explosion and a gun-battle near a mass prayer gathering to celebrate Eid in northern Bangladesh, police said.

Only days after 20 hostages were murdered by suspected militants in Dhaka, police and local media reported a new attack by terrorists near a prayer ground where at least 200,000 people were marking the end of Ramadan in the northern Kishoreganj district.

“One police constable is dead and at least five others were injured,” Mahbub, a police officer in the district control room, said, without giving details of how the policeman had died.

The private Somoy TV station broadcast footage of a gunfight between police and a group of attackers and reported the policeman had been hacked to death.

Before such a senseless tragedy Shafaqna editorial team would like to extend its most sincere condolences to the families of the victims and assure them that our prayers remain with them.

Let us not tragedy define us, but let us rise instead together stronger. If our enemies have worked to divide us, and isolate us what better way to defeat their plot but by offering each other support and solidarity. Islam requires us to come in the aid of the weak and the oppressed.

If indeed we ambition to serve God, let us then honour His last message to humanity and remember the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and those after him who have carried his light. There is no greater refuge but Islam.